APOD: Star Trails and the Captain s Ghost (2010 Oct 29)

[APOD Robot]

Star Trails and the Captain s Ghost

Explanation: Look closely at this surreal nightscape. In the dreamlike scene, star trails arc over an old ship run aground on a beach near Gytheio, Peloponnesus in southern Greece. Could that be the captain's ghost haunting the beach, gazing forlornly at the decaying wreck, hovering over starlight reflected in still water? Actually, the ephemeral shape is the photographer. Instead of a single long exposure to record the motion of the stars as the Earth rotates on its axis, the picture is composed of 90 consecutive images, each exposure 90 seconds long. Digitally stacking the individual exposures then reconstructs the star trails. It also creates a ghostly, semi-transparent figure of the photographer who was captured standing on the beach in only one of the exposures.

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[Ann]

That's a great image, absolutely, but I thought that another picture by Chris Kotsiopoulos was even better:

http://www.greeksky.gr/files/photos/lan ... ipPano.jpg

Anyway, you've sure put that picturesque wreck to good use, Chris! Well done!

Ann

[skim]

BORING and DULL

[jkbonner]

Star trails in the earth mover picture would have made it acceptable.
Come on guys, stop with the indoctrination on the evils of men.

[owlice]

Oh, this is great! A great shot, and the links are wonderful, too!

APOD is totally haunting!

[orin stepanek]

It also creates a ghostly, semi-transparent figure of the photographer who was captured standing on the beach in only one of the exposures.

His shirt shows up pretty good; but his feet are very wispy. Great picture!

[Sachin]

Maybe I am missing something here, but if each exposure was 90 seconds, how come the photographer's image is rather clear? Was he intentionally standing still during the entire exposure time?

[biddie67]

Beautiful photo - I love the hulking old ship looming up against the sky. The water is so still - amazing!

90 consecutive images is quite a challenge to coordinate back into one final picture. The photographer must have walked into the picture and stood still for several minutes (when some lighting was on) then walked back out again. He could then edit out the bottom parts of frames with any resulting blurs created when he was actually moving around.

I love the star trails reflected in the pool of water at the bottom!!

[pguin]

Not my favorite picture but it brings back memories of a few pleasant days I spent in Gythio. Some fishermen brought us out in their boats while they collected their nets. They wanted nothing from us except to entertain us. The water was sapphire blue. one of my best memories of my nine months traveling in Europe.

[neufer]

Star Trails and the Captain s Ghost

In the dreamlike scene, star trails arc over an old ship run aground on a beach near Gytheio [Guthrie?], Peloponnesus in southern Greece.

Could that be the captain's ghost haunting the beach, gazing forlornly at the decaying wreck, hovering over starlight reflected in still water?

A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 2, Scene 2

DEMETRIUS: I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
.................................................................................................
DEMETRIUS: Roman for the Greek DEMETRIOS (Δημήτριος) pertaining to Demeter.

<<Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki (Greek: Άγιος Δημήτριος της Θεσσαλονίκης) was a Christian martyr, who lived in the early 4th century. After the growth of his veneration as saint, the city of Thessaloniki suffered repeated attacks and sieges from the Slavic peoples who moved into the Balkans, and Demetrius was credited with many miraculous interventions to defend the city. Hence later traditions about Demetrius regard him as a soldier in the Roman army, and he came to be regarded as an important military martyr. Unsurprisingly, he was extremely popular in the Middle Ages, and along with Saint George, was the patron of the Crusades. A Sinai icon, of the Crusader period and painted by a French artist working in the Holy Land in the second half of the 12th century, shows what then became the most common depiction. Demetrius, bearded and on a dark horse, rides together with St George, unbearded and on a white horse. Both are dressed as cavalrymen. Also, while St. George is often shown spearing a dragon, St. Demetrius is depicted spearing the gladiator Lyaeos, who according to story was responsible for killing many Christians. In traditional hagiography, Demetrius did not directly kill Lyaeos, but rather through his prayers the gladiator was defeated by Demtrius' disciple, Nestor.

In Russian, he is called Димитрий Солунский ('Dimitri of Saloniki') and was a patron saint of the ruling Rurikid family from the late 11th century on. Izyaslav I of Kiev (whose Christian name was Dimitry) founded the first East Slavic monastery dedicated to this saint. The name Dimitry is in common use. The Serbian Orthodox Church reveres St. Demetrius as Mitar, having a feast of Mitrovdan on 8 November, which is a public holiday in the Republika Srpska part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is known in Lebanon as Mar Dimitri or Mitri for short, which is a common name among Christian Lebanese.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Bulgarian people revere St. Demetrius on 26 October as Димитровден (Dimitrovden).>>

[Tim S.]

I can tell he's not a vampire, because I can see his reflection in the tidal pool.

[ScrappyLaptop]

Perfectly creepy for Halloween! That's a lot of exposure & stacking, though...I'm assuming the camera tops out at 90 sec?

BTW, nice possible meteor trail caught at about 550w x 100h pels (0,0=top left)

[judy]

the universe is way, way, way bigger than the earth. bigger than star trails in the night sky over a picturesque boat. this has been a tough year for apod. i want to see and be astounded by the big, big universe. i want to be enlightened and excited by the universe. no more rust buckets! please!!

[Chris Peterson]

That's a lot of exposure & stacking, though...I'm assuming the camera tops out at 90 sec?

Luckily, there are many software tools available now that make stacking images trivial, and automatic shutter accessories that will generate the entire exposure sequence automatically.

The camera can take arbitrarily long exposures, but DSLRs are high noise, and the longer the exposure, the more thermal signal fills the pixels, lowering dynamic range. So when making long exposures with these cameras, it is always necessary to find the balance between signal and different noise sources. That usually lies somewhere between about a minute, and a few minutes. 90 seconds is a pretty reasonable exposure time to choose.

[ChrisKotsiopoulos]

Hi everybody!
Many thanks for your kind words! Also thanks to whoever didn’t like the picture. A bit of criticism always helps me to improve. I had to travel approximately 700 km in one day to take this photo (from Athens to Gytheio, Peloponnesus and back to Athens because the next day was Monday and I had to go to work...).

Beautiful photo - I love the hulking old ship looming up against the sky. The water is so still - amazing!

90 consecutive images is quite a challenge to coordinate back into one final picture. The photographer must have walked into the picture and stood still for several minutes (when some lighting was on) then walked back out again. He could then edit out the bottom parts of frames with any resulting blurs created when he was actually moving around.

Actually the process is much easier... Combining many shots in one is easy if you use the right software. I use 'Startrails' which if freeware. About the human figure in the photo, the technique is simple. I just had to run to the desired spot and stay still for about 2 minutes. Then I run back out of the frame. In the few seconds required to get in and out of the frame, the camera under dim conditions, doesn’t have the time to catch the movement... (and even if the camera catches some of the movement it will be so faint that it will eventually disappear during the image stacking).
I hope all of these make sense...

[owlice]

BTW, nice possible meteor trail caught at about 550w x 100h pels (0,0=top left)

Oh, good eye, Scrappy; thanks for pointing that out!

And welcome to Asterisk!

Chris, congratulations!!

[orin stepanek]

the universe is way, way, way bigger than the earth. bigger than star trails in the night sky over a picturesque boat. this has been a tough year for apod. i want to see and be astounded by the big, big universe. i want to be enlightened and excited by the universe. no more rust buckets! please!!

I liked the photo; after all the Earth is part of the universe. I'm sure there will be plenty of pictures that you like though. You can get a lot of such by going through the archives. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html Enjoy.

[Madhu]

Love the use of stacking technique. Great idea.

[Chris Peterson]

Love the use of stacking technique. Great idea. :D

It is effective. It is also how ALL the star trail pictures that have been APODs in the last ten years have been made. In fact, using digital cameras, it is the only way you can make a long star trail image.

[2386]

Why is the North Pole so close to the horizon in this photo?
Isn't Greece a little further than the Equator?

[Chris Peterson]

Why is the North Pole so close to the horizon in this photo?
Isn't Greece a little further than the Equator?

You're looking south here, and seeing the stars circling the South Celestial Pole, which is below the horizon.

[brainbug]

I live near this ship and believe me i haven't seen any other photo that makes justice of this landscape's amazing view. Kudos to Chris for this !